Stamford still loves Valentine

Updated 10:31 pm, Thursday, October 4, 2012

Photo: Frank Franklin II, Associated Press

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Boston Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine watches his team play during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the New York Yankees, Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2012, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Boston Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine watches his team play during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the New York Yankees, Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2012, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Photo: Frank Franklin II, Associated Press

Stamford still loves Valentine

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If Red Sox fans are happy to see Bobby Valentine leave Boston, Stamford is prepared to welcome him home with open arms.

Mayor Michael Pavia said he would be happy to find Valentine another gig in city hall. Valentine served as Stamford's director of public safety, health and welfare, a cabinet-level position for which he received an annual salary of $10,000, for about 11 months in 2011 before he left for Boston.

Pavia joked that Valentine, known for his prickly relationship with the press, could serve as the city's director of media relations.

"But in all seriousness, any desire on Bobby's part to ever come back in a service capacity within the city of Stamford would certainly be welcome," Pavia said. "He is the kind of person who is task-oriented and has a civic-oriented outlook and love for the community."

Valentine ended his tenure in Boston with a record of 69-93, the ballclub's worst season in almost 50 years.

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"I understand this decision," Valentine said in a statement. "This year in Boston has been an incredible experience for me, but I am as disappointed in the results, as are ownership and the great fans of Red Sox Nation. ... I'm sure next year will be a turnaround year."

Valentine's old job in his native Stamford has been filled by retired New York firefighter Ted Jankowski. Jankowski said Thursday he is waiting for the Red Sox to call so he can again succeed Valentine.

The call hasn't come.

Pavia said the next time a Major League Baseball team comes scouting for talent from his administration, he will be seeking a future draft pick.

Sandy Goldstein, president of the Downtown Special Service District, called Valentine "a hero," and said the upside of his dismissal was he would be able to participate again in fundraisers and civic service. He has served as the master of ceremonies at several DSSD events.

"I'm happy he will be returning to Stamford if he is happy but if he is sad I will be sad for him," Goldstein said. "He is my local Stamford hero, and he will remain in that realm, for me whether he is manager of the Red Sox or manager of Bobby V's restaurant in Columbus Park."

State Rep. Michael Molgano, R-Stamford, said Valentine would likely focus on philanthropy in the near future. Molgano, who is related to Valentine, predicted he would become involved in the community effort to raise money for a permanent memorial for Navy SEAL Brian Bill, who was killed in action in Afghanistan in 2011.

"Unless we get lucky and the (New York) Mets get sold and Bobby becomes a (General Manager)," said Molgano, a die-hard Mets fan.

Valentine is already signed up to host the Multiple Sclerosis Dinner of Champions in Greenwich Oct. 18. But if Stamford politicians see a future for him in city hall, Valentine might be less wise to pursue a career in Greenwich government.

David Theis, the Greenwich second selectman, said he nearly got into a fistfight with Valentine after a high school girls basketball game in Greenwich when they were teenagers.

"We almost got into a fisticuffs out in the parking lot here one night," Theis said about the Town Hall Parking lot. The building used to house Greenwich High School until the early 1970s. He said Valentine challenged him to settle their differences in an area where police couldn't spot them.

"Fortunately it didn't go anywhere I probably would have got my ass kicked," Theis said with a laugh.

"There was always with him, to be honest with you, a little bit of an edge. I am sorry to see what happened but I am not entirely surprised."

Valentine, then a student at Rippowam High School in Stamford, would wear an Indian headdress and act as a mascot for Rippowam in games against Greenwich. His actions during a girls basketball game infuriated Theis, who was a year older than Valentine.

"We didn't like him running around with his Indian headdress taunting our crowd," Theis said.

Theis praised Valentine for his many charitable efforts, his success with Bobby V's Sports Gallery Cafe, and recalled that he was "unstoppable" on the football field in high school.

Al Shanen, Valentine's football coach at Rippowam from 1964 through 1968, said he empathized with Valentine's admission this week that his Boston coaching staff wasn't loyal to him.

"I was rooting for Bobby and I thought it was a good move for him," Shanen, 81, said. "In my mind he is a fabulous individual and I'm a little surprised about how the Boston media painted him. It could not have been about his perceptions, ability, and strategy of the game, because all of the things he needed to be a superior manager he'd proven with the New York Mets and then the Chiba Lotte Marines."

Jerry Pia, a longtime friend of Valentine's, was sitting at Bobby V's restaurant in downtown Stamford when the news broke.

"I was looking forward to him managing that team next year with a young club and free agents. Look what he did with the Mets. I think that's the proof. I was really thinking that after they got rid of all those players I thought they'd have a chance to turn that whole club around in the off season," said Pia, a New York Yankees fan who runs youth baseball teams in Stamford. "They've got really good guys coming out of their farm system, and I think Bobby's the right guy for that. He manages a great game. He's strategically one of the best managers of all time."

Stamford resident Franklin Charmevil wore a Mets sweatshirt as he stood outside Valentine's restaurant Thursday. While he maintained that Valentine and the Red Sox were never a good fit, he noted that "You can't judge his whole career based on one season with the Red Sox. You can't count out Bobby Valentine."

Charmevil, a die-hard Mets fan, said he would welcome seeing Valentine back in charge of the team he brought to the World Series in 2000.

"I think we should bring him back to the Mets," Charmevil said. "It's like a piece of a puzzle. Sometimes it fits, sometimes it doesn't. He fit well with the Mets, and the Mets are doing poorly anyway so he couldn't hurt."

Valentine's efforts raising money for local agencies even earned him charitable remarks from Yankees fans in Stamford.

Kelly Thomas, the owner of Hope Bottle Shop and a self-described "die-hard Yankee fan," was watching the ESPN news ticker announce Valentine's dismissal. Though sporting a Yankees T-shirt, Thomas said she used to be a frequent customer at Bobby V's, and separates the individual from the team.

"As a person, I like Bobby," she said. "He's a local guy, he has a lot of respect in Stamford and I wish things had been better for him in Boston. I hope he has a chance to manage another team, if he's willing to do that again. But, as a Yankees fan, I'm glad the Red Sox didn't win the playoffs."

Some of his fellow residents, though, suggested Valentine may have been happiest a long way from home.